Embodiments herein generally relate to variable data printing applications and more particularly to a system and method that automates the use of variable data printing applications within social networking sites.
Social networking sites such as Facebook (www.facebook.com; Facebook, Palo Alto Calif., USA) incorporate content such as personal information, contacts, photos, albums, maps, and discussions as well as application add-ons that may result in additional content being displayed on a user's social networking site pages. This content is shared with a network of friends who in turn have their own social networking site content. Such content is often suitable for variable data products such as personalized calendars, greeting cards, photo albums, travel memory books, promotional materials and dimensional print items, as well as cross-media content. Currently there is no versatile method for obtaining customized and personalized print and cross-media products based on a user's social networking site and social network.
The embodiments herein provide a method for adding a knowledge-based, variable data print (VDP) application to a social networking site where the application can access and analyze the user's personal content and social network content to determine suitable VDP templates based on the available data and graphics. The application can offer previews of template instances that incorporate a particular user's content, as well as content from other users in said user's network, as well as delivery of purchased print and cross-media products based on those templates.
The application employs a hosted VDP service, for example based on XMPie, (www.xmpie.com; Xerox Corp., Norwalk Conn., USA) which contains a library of campaigns. These campaigns can use the content extracted from a social networking site as graphic assets and data sources for VDP template instances. The application also employs a knowledge-based system to reason about which templates are suitable for a user's social networking content and profiles.
Although Facebook and XMPie are used as examples in this description, as would be understood by those ordinarily skilled in the art, the concepts herein are applicable to other social networking sites and VDP platforms. The embodiments herein provide the integration of social networking content, a knowledge-based system and a VDP system
One specific embodiment herein is a computer-implemented method that receives, into at least one computerized device, permissions and preferences from at least one user of at least one social networking site. The method automatically obtains user page data relating to the user from at least one social networking site (as limited by the permissions and preferences) using the computerized device.
One feature of embodiments herein is that they automatically monitor the social networking site to detect one or more pre-established events. These “events” are a set of logical rules that define time-based event occurrences (recurring events, such as a person's birthday, recurring seasonal events, monthly events, etc.) or the event rules can define one-time occurrences (one-time events, such as a job promotion, a marketing campaign, a social date, etc.). Each of the events comprises information about the topical content of the event. The monitoring process compares the user page data to predetermined event rules to determine whether the event has occurred. Again, this monitoring process is limited by the permissions and preferences set up by the user.
Upon detection of an event, the embodiments herein automatically identify a variable data campaign from a repository of variable data campaigns based on the topical content of the event. The variable data campaigns comprise variable information documents.
The embodiments herein automatically select text and media from the user page data that matches the topical content (again, using the computerized device). The user page data may also link to page data from users in the user's social network. Further, embodiments herein automatically generate a variable data print instance by combining the images and text from the user page data with the variable data campaign using the computerized device.
Then, the embodiments herein can automatically output the variable data print instance to a user of the social networking site using the computerized device. The outputting process can comprise displaying and/or printing the variable data print instance. This process can also provide the user an option to view the variable data print instance, using the computerized device, before outputting the variable data print instance. These and other features are described in, or are apparent from, the following detailed description.